Pathetic phallacy

[Kim Braithwaite]

The Wikipedia account is the best yet. It does seem that "pathetic fallacy" 
is matched fairly well, though perhaps not in all contexts, by 
"antropomorfizm" ( = nadelenie chelovecheskimi svoistvami iavlenii prirody, 
zhivotnykh, predmetov...). Students in Creative Writing 101 are always 
cautioned against overuse of the device. I wonder if Russian students get 
the same kind of caution. By the way, is "phallacy" really an authorized 
alternate spelling, or is someone pulling our leg?

"Good is better than evil, because it's nicer" - Mammy Yokum (Al Capp)

Mr Kim Braithwaite, Translator
kbtrans at cox.net

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "A.Smith" <a.smith at CAVEROCK.NET.NZ>
To: <SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU>
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2006 9:51 AM
Subject: [SEELANGS] Pathetic phallacy


If the question was related to a specific rhetorical figure, then one needs
to compare the term (as described below) to literary terms available in
Russian. Perhaps,  "antropomorficheskaia tendentsiia/antropomorficheskij
aspekt " would be OK to use?..

Best,
AS


Alexandra Smith (PhD, University of London)
Lecturer in Russian
University of Sheffield

Alexandra.Smith at sheffield.ac.uk



PS.
Pathetic fallacy
>From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In literary criticism, the pathetic fallacy is the description of inanimate
natural objects in a manner that endows them with human emotions, thoughts,
sensations, and feelings. The term was coined by John Ruskin in his 1856
work Modern Painters, in which Ruskin wrote that the aim of pathetic fallacy
was ³to signify any description of inanimate natural objects that ascribes
to them human capabilities, sensations, and emotions." In the narrow sense
intended by Ruskin, the pathetic fallacy is an artistic failing, since he
believed the central value of art, literary or visual, ought to be its
truthful representation of the world as it appears to our senses, not as it
appears in our imaginative and fanciful reflections upon it. (The meaning of
the phrase is often obscure to modern readers accustomed only to the
definition of "pathetic" meaning "pitifully inferior" rather than its other
definitions, including "capable of feeling".).
Critics after Ruskin have generally not followed him in regarding the
pathetic fallacy as an artistic mistake, instead assuming that attribution
of sentient, humanising traits to nature is a centrally human way of
understanding the world, and that it does have a useful and important role
in art and literature. Indeed, to reject the use of pathetic fallacy would
mean dismissing most Romantic poetry and many of Shakespeare's most
memorable images. However, literary critics find it useful to have a
specific term for describing anthropomorphic tendencies in art and
literature and so the phrase is currently used in a neutral and
judgement-free sense.
The pathetic fallacy is not a logical fallacy since it does not imply a
mistake in reasoning. As a rhetorical figure it bears some resemblance to
personification, although it is less formal.
The pathetic fallacy is not confined to fiction, but was a generally
accepted convention of pre-World War I prose. For example, the 1911
Encyclopedia Britannica abounds in use of the pathetic fallacy even though
it is ostensibly a purely factual work.
Examples of the pathetic fallacy include:
"The stars will awaken / Though the moon sleep a full hour later" (Percy
Bysshe Shelley)
"The fruitful field / Laughs with abundance" (William Cowper)
"Lo, the most excellent sun so calm and haughty" (Walt Whitman)
"Nature abhors a vacuum" (John Ruskin's translation of the well-known
Medieval saying natura abhorret a vacuo, in his work Modern Painters.)
[edit]
References

Abrams, M.H., A Glossary of Literary Terms, 6th edition, Harcourt, 1993.
Crist, Eileen, Images of Animals: Anthropomorphism and Animal Mind, Temple
University Press, Philadelphia, PA, 1999.
Groden, M. (ed.), The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism,
Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.

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